PROTESTS FORCE REPLY

Chronicle (Levin), 14 April 1949, Page 5

PROTESTS FORCE REPLY

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-Reuter,

Questions In Commons About Maiayan Shootings

Copyright)

Received Thursday, 10.10 a.m. EONDON, April 13. Protests were made in the House of Commons. this afternoon against the shooting of two Chinese women by th'e police in Malaya on Febru,ary 23. Mr. Emrys Hughes (Labour) asked the Colonial Under-Secre-tary, Mr. Rees Williams, to say whether the two women were shot down after being chased for half a mile, and would he give instructions that unarmed women should not be shot at by the police in future. Mr. Williams did not reply. Mr. William Gallacher (Communist) asked the Speaker if it was in order to refer to the shooting as a "shocking case of foul and bloody murder." The Speaker replied: I should have thought not." The Minister did not reply further and Mr. Godfrey Nicholson (Conservative) said: "Surefy the Minister isn't going to sit quietly 'and let an accusation of this kind go without comment." Mr. Williams * then said that the women were chased for half a mile. The police called on them to halt, but they refused. The police then fired. As a result one w'oman was killed and the other died in hospital. "Members must realise the intensely difficult situation in Malaya with which the police have to grapple," he continued. "The women refused to halt and, in accordance with a police promulgation, they were liable to be fired upon and were fired upon."